Foodmantra

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

I’m
a big fan of Masterchef. I’ve seen most of the seasons of Masterchef Australia
and love every single episode. I’d seen the Indian version as well, season 1
mainly and portions of season 2. Evidently, Masterchef Australia is different
from Masterchef UK or USA, as it is different from Masterchef India. My mother
and I completely adored the ghevar cake and rasgulla cake in Season 1. I never
knew that India had such great techniques in cooking like the stone and wood-plank
cooking task in season 2. I really wanted to work for Masterchef India. I would
religiously call the production house’s board line at lunch hour for 8 months
before the project finally started and I got that interview. Only the security
guard knew who I was then.

Working
on Masterchef for one who loves food today, is more a matter of honour and
pride, than anything else. I’m proud too, proud of what I have learned from
this project. Each time I would meet a contestant and speak to them about their
food, I would feel more and more intimidated by the greatness of Indian food.
There are so many cultures, little villages and regions, so many diverse food
habits that I learned about. An ingredient as simple as a potato or okra, can
be cooked in no less than a hundred different styles. Just by altering the
proportions of simple spice combinations you can make a whole different dish.
The treasure of knowledge in our country’s cooks is far greater than any other,
and I only came to learn this during the Masterchef Auditions.

We went
to cities and villages to research our tasks and in search of the best cooks.
What I found was, ingredients and cooking methods that I had never seen before.
Dafan and loon cooking, which I believed to be contemporary styles turned out
to be techniques from the villages! Have you heard of Murgh Shikasta Haripasand
Faizabadi? Well, I hadn’t either but then we met the man himself, food
historian and writer, Professor Pushpesh Pant for his valuable inputs on this
show. We met Chefs and culinary experts from across the country to bring out
the best of Indian food in this show. The unheard techniques and principles in
Ayurvedic cooking that can be brought out of the closet on the show. The dying
art of making a ‘Poothereku’ that you will witness on the show.

We
have spent 3 months on just getting our hands on this beautiful art of making a
Poothereku. Each day we would come in to the kitchen and make a fresh batter,
speak to more regional cooks; call sweet shops in Andhra just to get that one
task right. We didn’t give up and I still remember chanting a prayer during the
task, hoping our contestants were brilliant enough to get it right. They were,
they all were brilliant enough to make a perfect Poothereku.

A
team of over a hundred people is working night and day on making a show that
brings out the best cooks and the best food in India. There are so many aspects
to a show and so many people’s effort goes in making it. We still wake up
inspired, each day, with pride because we are working for Masterchef India 3.
Television is a medium that brings the real stories of Indian people home, and
the show is a reflection of the spirit and talent of India. My love for Indian
food is sincere and I salute Masterchef India for showcasing its brilliance on
the show.

What women want? While all of mankind is
still struggling to answer this question, OTB attempts to answer it with its
W-Day buffet. Did they succeed? You men, already know that you can never
succeed in completely satisfying women but this is a good beginning. Firstly,
it’s just a day dedicated to women. We would prefer it if the entire week was
dedicated to us, but we’ll make do with a special day.

Since the W-Day buffet celebrates women
and is designed for them, I am going to talk about it from a lady’s perspective
rather than a neutral point of view.

The
Concept and has it succeeded

Dedicating Wednesday to women is becoming
a common and successful trend. With an offer like this it takes off the edge of
mid-week-crisis for men and women, whoever cares to visit. I like to call it ‘The
kitty party’ concept. This is a 5 course
buffet meal that costs Rs 395 inclusive of taxes as on date. The buffet
includes a non-alcoholic beverage, a
soup, variety of salads laid out, dips and bread, a cheese platter, live
counter, main course and a dessert buffet.

On
the Plus Side

This is a reasonable buffet for the location,
ambience, quality of food they offer and the variety that is available. To be
clear this is not like a “Shaadi” style buffet, wherein vegetarian, non-vegetarian
Indian, Chinese and what is known as “Conti” dishes are laid in a long line with
a naan counter. This buffet offers a selection of vegetarian and non-vegetarian
salads, dips and bread, a cheese platter, a live counter as well as dessert
that is laid out on the buffet table.

The main course selection includes
sizzlers, pastas and BBQ dishes to choose from. These are not laid out on the
buffet but freshly prepared and brought to your table plated like an a la carte
meal. There are two reasons I liked this arrangement. The first being that the
food does not sit out for hours on the buffet losing the freshness and getting
overcooked as well. The second reason is that food wastage is minimum. You may
have noticed people heaping up their plates with mutton, chicken, paneer all
together with hakka noodles and stir fry vegetables on their plate, that they can
no longer tell the dishes apart. Not only do diners end up wasting food on
their plate but also there is more leftover in the kitchen. Freshly prepared
dishes are brought to the table; however, portion size is comparatively smaller
than that in an a la carte meal.

On
The Minus Side

5 out of 10 Indian women are vegetarians.
My mother’s kitty party friends come from well-to-do Vegetarian families and
they meet each week for chitchat and their weekly gossip dose. The question
that comes to my head is, will they like the OTB W-Day buffet? Although the
selection offered to vegetarians is not limited and holds 50% weightage, the
dishes that are offered are not very appealing. Not only does their description
hold little promise but also two of the veggie salads that I tried and the
vegetarian main course we ordered were disappointing. I think OTB should
improve the taste of their currently available vegetarian dishes and also must
include a few more promising and delicious vegetarian items to the main course.
In my opinion the buffet did not do justice to the vegetarians.

What’s
in it for Women?

The W-day buffet has some added
attractions including a lucky draw with vouchers to be won. They also have an
astrologer, palm reader and face reader. On request, kitty party games for
groups can be organized as well.

Menu,
courses and selection

There was a vegetarian soup, 4 different
types of dips with assorted bread. Although the dips offered were impressive,
the selection of breads offered can be improved. There were 6 or 7 different
types of vegetarian and non-vegetarian salads.
Cheese Platter offered only two types of cheese namely emmenthal and
cheddar slices along with inadequate accompaniments.

The Sushi live counter was impressive
considering that it is hard to find sushi places in Pune in the first place.
Although there was one vegetarian, a prawn and a chicken maki roll n California
roll variety of sushi; this counter was unique and impressive in our city. It’s
also a good place for an affordable experiment for those who haven’t tried
sushi. They have a different live counter every Wednesday such as a Thai
counter or a pasta counter.

For main course you can choose between a
sizzler, pasta or a BBQ dish. Each of these offers 2 or 3 options. The
selection of Pasta selection was limited. Pasta has become a safe choice for
most of the Indian diners, a white sauce pasta and a tomato pasta doesn’t do it
for me when there is no pasta live counter. I would’ve preferred to have few
more promising pasta options on the menu.

There were merely 4 or 5 desserts on the
buffet. This is disappointing for a sweet tooth. Many diners I know look
forward to the dessert buffet and expect a good variety offered on the buffet.
A chocolate gateau, a cheesecake, swiss roll and mousse is not enough.

Food

The soup of the day was light and average
in taste.

Dips

The Aioli Dip, hummus and the petit pois
dip were great. The petit pois dip was unique and refreshing change from
regular dips, it slightly tangy and really worked together with those breads
for me. The moho dip was good too, though not great.

Salads

The Ploughman’s Salad and Seafood Papaya
Salad were delicious.

Ploughman's Salad

Seafood and Papaya Salad

The Chicken Sausage salad was good too. However, the
smoked cauliflower salad for the vegetarians was bland and unapppetising.

Smoked Cauliflower

Tandoori
paneer salad was decent but not great, although a little tang in it would have
made it zingy and perfect.

Tandoori Paneer Salad

Live
Counter

Sushi – the maki and California rolls
were decent but not made with raw fish. There were shredded chicken and fried
prawn rolls along with the vegetarian one. Since sushi wasn’t the main
attraction but an added attraction, it worked. I think it is acceptable to use
cooked prawns in place of raw fish if good quality fish is unavailable.

Sushi Selection

Main
Dishes

I will begin with my order of Lemon Sauce
Chicken, which is also listed as one of the house favourites on the menu.
Ordering the house favourite is more or less a safe choice. The taste of the
house favourite also sets the bar for the rest of the menu. If they can’t make
the house favourite finger licking good then there isn’t much promise in the
other dishes either. This chicken dish was delicious and the sauce was finger
licking good. They use a boneless piece of leg in this dish making it far more
juicy and flavourful than preparations using boneless breast. The ala carte
portion size of this dish includes a leg and a breast however, for the buffet a
single piece of leg was served with a side of grilled vegetables and very lumpy
mashed potatoes.

Chicken In Lemon Sauce

The filet of Basa with Asian pesto sauce
was creamy and yummy too. Basa is becoming increasingly popular with
restaurants in the city for good reason. It was a good quality, fresh tasting
fillet with pesto and creamy sauce. I hardly think any chef can go wrong when the dish is so perfect in itself.

The vegetarian cutlet sizzler was a disappointment.
After the salads when I tasted the mediocre vegetarian sizzler, it made me
think that this W-Day buffets needs work when it comes to their vegetarian
selection. The patty was bland, soggy and the vegetables in it were not
appetising. It was confusing, was it overcooked cabbage or something else.
Perhaps a little more potato would hold this dish together, but something was
definitely off. The patty around which the rest of the sizzler revolved, did
not have enough character to make it a good dish.

Vegetarian Cutlet Sizzler

The lemon cheesecake and death by
chocolate made it a satisfactory desserts buffet.

Lemon Cheesecake

Death By Chocolate

The papaya mousse however,
was too heavy, creamy and dense to appeal to my palate.

Papaya Mousse

Service

About a month ago when I had reviewed OTB
Pune for the first time on my father’s birthday for an ala carte evening meal,
the server’s lack of knowledge had disappointed me. He was unaware of the wines
available that evening or the ones that would go well with our fondue.

This time however, since the review was
on invitation, the service was far better. Although another error in service
makes me assert that OTB Pune staff must learn more about their wines, dishes,
and what they look like.

Siddharth ordered a vegetarian sizzler
while Tanzif had asked for a chicken sizzler. Our server assumed that both the
sizzlers he had brought from the kitchen were chicken sizzlers. He offered to
bring the correct order. Since, both Siddharth and Tanzif are non-vegetarians
they asked him to serve it anyway. In reality, it wasn’t a mix up from the
kitchen. Our server could not tell the vegetarian sizzler from the
non-vegetarian sizzler. He ended up serving the wrong sizzler to the wrong
person without realizing they were different sizzlers. It is important for the
service staff to be able to identify a vegetarian from a non-vegetarian
sizzler. It can be difficult to tell them apart with all that sauce. I suggest
the kitchen staff add a signature ingredient on the vegetarian sizzler, as a
sign, so it is easier to tell them apart.

Value
for Money

With few appetising vegetarian dishes and
a limited selection of desserts, the value for money for a vegetarian is not up
to the mark. Having said that, good quality food, an interesting variety of
items and the location of OTB makes it worth it. The non-vegetarian sizzlers
and BBQ dishes that we tried were all delicious. Had there been some creamy
pesto or risottos in the pasta selection this course would have been a fun
choice too.

That thing about this buffet is that it
is a breath of fresh air for a weekday buffet. Aren’t you bored of having the
same old Indian, chinese and ‘conti’ buffets all the time? OTB buffet has quite
the edge when it comes to cuisine. They also serve a la carte dishes on Wednesday
afternoon as well, in case you wish to spend the afternoon with wine, fondue
over saucy gossip. This buffet can be a perfect lunch hour meal for working
women or a way for women to relax and unwind for a couple of hours while their
men and children are away.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Many of the packaged Thai curry pastes available in the market contain shrimp paste and fish sauce. There are a few Indian brands that manufacture Thai Curry paste without a non-vegetarian base; however, these are often not easily available. Why rush to the supermarket each time you crave for Thai curry? With fresh ingredients homemade thai curry paste is a far better choice.

Vegetarian Thai Red Curry

This vegetarian thai red curry is made with fresh, homemade thai curry paste with a vegetarian base. You can also use eggplant or other vegetables as per your preference.

Note: Non-vegetarians can add in shrimp paste and fish sauce to the Thai Curry paste. Diced chicken, fish or shrimps can be added to make a Chicken or Seafood Thai curry.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

We have been serving the same old traditional Modaks to Ganpati Bappa for so many years. Don’t get me wrong, I love traditional modaks but I believe in giving some variety to Bappa. It’s been few days since Ganesh Chaturthi began and his belly is loaded with traditional modaks. How about taking 20 minutes to make this Eggless Modak Cookie for Lord Ganesha this weekend?

Eggless Modak Cookies with Chocolate Center (Sugar Free)

This is an orange flavoured modak with chocolate center. It is a pure vegetarian cookie. This No egg cookie recipe is made with sugar free. If you wish to use regular sugar replace it with the same quantity of powdered sugar.

For 6-8 Cookies

Ingredients

Refined Flour 100grams

Sugar Free Sweetener 30grams

Butter, softened 50grams

Orange Peel (use only the zest) 7grams

Cold Water few drops

Dark Chocolate, cut into pieces (use buttons) 50grams

Vegetable Oil to grease mould

You Will Need

Modak Mould

Baking Sheet

Method:

1) Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius.

Sieve the flour and the sugar free together for proper mixing. Take this mixture on a flat surface rub in the butter into the flour using your fingertips, until the texture becomes like breadcrumbs.

2) Use a zester to only grate the outer layer of the orange peel. Be sure not to get the inner, white layer since it is bitter. Add the orange zest to the mixture and mix well.

3) Sprinkle cold water on the mixture just to bring the mixture together. It will still be crumbly but do not knead the mixture at all. Once you bring it together, cling wrap it and pop it to chill for 20 minutes.

4) Remove the mixture from the cling wrap and divide the dough into 6 equal parts (depending on the size of your modak mould). Save a little extra dough on the side.

5) First, take a bowl full of water with a tablespoon of vegetable oil mixed in it. Apply this water and oil mixture properly on the inside of the modak mould. Apply this water oil mixture on your hands. Take a lemon size portion from the dough mixture and round it up in your palm. Put this portion of dough inside the modak mould.

6) Make a cavity in the center of the dough with your thumb. Press the dough evenly with your fingers, on the sides of the modak mould, making a large cavity in the center. Add a small cut pieces of chocolate in the cavity and fill up the cavity completely. Take another small piece of the dough kept aside and seal the modak from the bottom, making it flat and even on the base. Open the mould and remove the modak. Finish the entire dough by making even size modaks.

7) Line the baking tray with a baking sheet. Place the cookies on the sheet and pop the tray into the oven for 10-12 minutes at 200 degree Celsius.

8) Remove the cookies from the oven and keep them to cool for 20 minutes before lacing them in your cookie jar.